A third grader in Hai Phong was forced to drink water wrung from a board-cleaning cloth. Other students have been told to eat chilis or drink soapy water.

Minister of Education has released a dispatch requesting schools to ensure security in schools

1. Nguyen Thi Minh Huong, an elementary school teacher in Hai Phong, ‘went too far’ when punishing a third grader.

Huong, 25, became ‘famous’ for coercing the student to consume dirty water in class as a punishment for making noise in class. The teacher’s behavior has been described by the Ministry of Education & Training (MOET) as “a serious violation of the teaching profession code of conduct”.

The teacher has been fired. However, many people have demanded that she be prosecuted.

2. Three years ago, a teacher at the Nhan Dao Secondary School was disciplined for coercing seven sixth graders to rinse their mouths with soapy water because the students repeatedly violated regulations.

Commenting about the punishment, the school’s principal said the teacher had only tried to ‘threaten’ students, and ‘had no ill will in doing this’.

The teacher later said she met every student and their parents to apologize for her behavior. However, the explanation didn’t satisfy the public.

3. A male teacher at the Cat Tai Secondary School in Binh Dinh province in 2015 poured water into the student’s mouth as he was on the floor on his back.

On that day, when the class was noisy, the student stood up and asked the class to keep silent. The teacher thought that requesting classmates to keep silent was not his responsibility.

Also during the lesson, another student was hit on the head with a ruler by the teacher. The problem was that the student claimed money back for extra lessons, but the teacher did not give back the excess money to him.

The teacher also gave a student a wha k on the ear opening the book reserved for teachers to write comments about teaching hours. Another student was beaten because he sat in the wrong position.

4. In 2014, three teachers at the Hoang Dieu Primary School in Binh Phuoc province were reprimanded for forcing 19 students to eat chilis.

The head teacher of the class, who ‘invented’ the punishment, said she used the punishment on some of her students who did not do exercises as requested and made noise in class.

The punishment was also applied by the same teacher again and by other teachers, who thought it was ‘very effective’.